


It's You That I Lie With

by Yachtly



Category: Outer Wilds (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Chalk (Outer Wilds OC), Gen, Mostly Canon Compliant, Outer Wilds OC, Outer Wilds Spoilers, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:02:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28458729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yachtly/pseuds/Yachtly
Summary: Title from "As the World Caves In" by Matt MalteseI decided to call my player character Chalk because it is a stone type and because I thought it was fitting for one of the people who helped create the Nomai Translator be named after a common writing instrument.
Relationships: Gabbro & Player Character (Outer Wilds)
Kudos: 20





	It's You That I Lie With

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "As the World Caves In" by Matt Maltese
> 
> I decided to call my player character Chalk because it is a stone type and because I thought it was fitting for one of the people who helped create the Nomai Translator be named after a common writing instrument.

Before chalk ever dreamed of going into space themself, they were fascinated by the Outer Wilds travelers. Growing up in the village on Timber Hearth, that’s all there really was. The images of the firsts—Feldspar, lost to space, Slate, even old Esker up on the moon. They remembered visiting the museum and looking at the founding members portrait and dreaming of one day having that sort of impact. More specifically, they dreamed that one day they might meet Feldspar, that they would return from the depths of space from some far off and mystical voyage to spin outlandish tales of feats only they could achieve.

And then Chalk actually met Feldspar camped out in the long-dead corpse of an angler fish, deep inside Dark Bramble. But by then, Chalk was fully adult, assisted in the development of the Nomai Translator and discovered the truth about the imminent heat death of their star system. Heat death they were experiencing quite frequently. Watchin the sun explode and swallow the galaxy for the first time was awe inspiring. And traumatizing. There was always that little twinge of fear when they heard the star expand, to blast the solar system with heat just before it exploded, fear it would really be over, that they would have to face the nothingness after death.

But chalk always woke up, staring at Giant’s Deep, watching the Orbital Probe Cannon fracture in its orbit, smelling the smoke of Slate’s fire beside them. After all of that, and especially after being eaten by two angler fish, meeting Feldspar was… underwhelming.

They knew there would be less than twenty minutes before Feldspar forgot them again, before anything Chalk had said to them would become irrelevant.

Meeting the other astronauts was all like that. They were pit stops on a grander mission to break the galaxy free from the cycle of destruction, to hopefully escape the supernova. Chalk new it was a little hopeful to want to survive and save the Hearthians, and they hoped they would find some elusive Nomai writing in one of the places they had yet to travel that would allow them to survive and save their race. They didn’t want everyone to die.

They especially didn’t want Gabbro to die.

Meeting Gabbro was different to the other astronauts on the other planets because they  _ knew _ . As Chalk had continued the loops, they became jaded with conversation, with life. They felt like a figurehead, moving through, not concrete, a pawn serving a very specific purpose. Their death was inevitable and repeating and they no longer felt like the Hearthian they were before it all. But then there was Gabbro. A breath of fresh air who understood what Chalk felt, who remembered when they talked to them, who would sit by the fire and it felt like something. Gabbro would laugh at the way chalk almost always accidentally burnt one of their marshmallows, then tossed it into Giant’s Deep’s oceans. A treat for the jellyfish.

“At first,” Gabbro was grinning under their helmet, Chalk could tell, “I thought you were lying ot me about you also being stuck in the loop. Because you kept burning your marshmallows like that.”

And then Chalk flung one particularly burnt marshmallow at Gabbro’s helmet and it stuck right to their face shield, oozing slowly down. They both laughed until a twister flung the island into the sky and when Gabbro popped off their hammock, gravity didn’t pull them back down like it usually did. They were hurtling towards the sun.

Chalk didn’t think. They boosted off the rock towards Gabbro, arms outstretched until they slammed together and spun through space. Chalk’s hands gripped tight onto Gabbro’s forearms, their helmets clanked together, smearing burnt and melted marshmallow on both of them.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Gabbro said, their voice sounding much more shaken than they were attempting to let on, breath heaving. “We’ll both die anyway, and I’ll be right back in my hammock again.”

“It’s different,” Chalk said shortly. There was a difference between knowing that Gabbro did die every loop and watching them do it. Not when they could do something about it. They let their helmet rest against Gabbro’s and adjusted their velocity so they weren’t mindlessly spinning in the vacuum of space. 

“I know,” Gabbro said eventually, then added, “Hey. If we stay on this path, we’ll be just like this marshmallow,” they jerked their head slightly towards the sun. “Just kidding. Looks like it might blow before we get there.”

They didn’t talk much for the rest of that loop, holding onto each other, staring towards the sun and waiting for the heat to rush at them, for the blue particle explosion that would sear them alive. As soon it went, Gabbro squeezed Chalk’s hand—

Their memories rushed back. Flying after Gabbro. A particularly rough landing on Giant’s Deep, almost crashing into the Attlerock when taking off, exploring the Statue Workshop, laying on the ground, watching Giant’s Deep. Their breath thudded back into them and they sat up. Slate still roasted their marshmallow over the fire. The Orbital Probe Cannon still fired.

There was one loop that stopped as soon as it started, when the Orbital Probe Cannon fired directly at Timber Hearth and destroyed Chalk’s ship as soon as they tried to approach it. The next loop, they told Gabbro about it, and they immediately pondered, “Huh, so you think it sends off a probe in a different direction every time we wake up? I’d never really thought about that before. You think it could fire down directly at me, or would Giant’s Deep’s gravity prevent that? Who knows. If you see it fire towards me, just avoid me for that loop, just in case.”

Everything about Gabbro made Chalk wish that they had gone to Giant’s Deep earlier, but they often felt very much like Riebeck, terrified of everything the universe had to offer, and Giant’s Deep’s swirling storms and dark ocean made them uneasy. They avoided it until they had to go there. They found the Vessel, they’d been to the core of the Ash Twin, they’d learned from the Tower of Quantum Knowledge, all before meeting Gabbro. There wasn’t much left to do after meeting them, and that hurt. This was knowledge that Chalk withheld from Gabbro for a while while they searched for a way to get to the core of the oceanic planet, to find the Probe Tracking Module.

After they found the coordinates, they meditated in the chamber until the next loop, then found Gabbro, and finally admitted what must be done.

“There’s no way to save us,” they said, voice quiet. Gabbro let them settle into the hammock next to them and they stared up at the swirling green clouds of Giant’s Deep. “The sun’s really dying. Originally it was supposed to be a Nomai experiment to set the sun ablaze, but now it’s just actually dying. And it’s death is supplying the power to the cannon to send out a search probe. When the probe finally found the Eye of the Universe—that’s what the Nomai were looking for. Not sure what it would do yet—but that’s what triggered our statues, got us stuck in this loop, and the only way to end it is… well to end it.”

“I had a feeling,” Gabbro said after a pause. “I guess I’ll never get to make those quantum sculptures I wanted to. And you have to do it? Stop the loop?”

Chalk nodded, “I think so. I’m not sure. We’ll just be stuck in this forever if I don’t. I still need to get on the quantum moon and see if there are any other answer up there. Maybe something…” they sighed. “I know there’s nothing that could stop the death of a star. There’s no reverse button.”

Gabbro was quiet for a while, then said, “Let me know whatever you find on the quantum moon when you go. How do you plan on landing on it?”

“Not sure yet,” Chalk admitted. “I’ve tried before but whenever I enter the clouds it disappears. I need to learn a little more about quantum objects, I think.”

“Hm,” Gabbro pondered, “Not sure where you would do that.”

“Me neither,” Chalk chuckled.

“Well good luck with that, time pal,” Gabbro said. They stayed quiet until the sun exploded and Chalk was thankful for their company as the galaxy went blue. 

Chalk spent the next few loops trying to find a way to land on the quantum moon to no avail, then eventually returned to Giant’s Deep, but lowered into a place they’d never seen before. A tower stood proudly, surrounded by the galeforce winds of the one particularly large twister. It was a lucky landing, and they were able to learn how to land on the quantum moon there.

The next loop, they landed on it, got the tower to the north pole, and travelled to the sixth location. They met Solanum, they knew that the only way to possibly change the outcome of the repeated supernova was to enter the Eye of the Universe as a conscious observer.

They died on the quantum moon.

They returned to Gabbro’s camp.

“I have to take the warp core out of the Ash Twin Project,” they began, “And bring it to the Nomai Vessel, enter the coordinates for the Eye of the Universe, and warp there. Then jump into the heart of it, and because it’s a quantum object, that…  _ might _ do something.”

“Interesting,” Gabbro hummed. “And that will stop the loops?”

“By taking the warp core I will stop the Ash Twin Project. Even if I don’t make it to the vessel on time, the world will end. No more looping.”

“Ah. So it’s really all the same for me,” they turned their flute around in their hands. “Death by supernova, but permanently.”

“Not if you come with me,” Chalk said.

“Well my hammock’s pretty comfortable…” they said, then turned their head towards Chalk, “You’re serious?”

“Yes,” they nodded. “You should see the end of it too. Whatever it is.”

“Whatever it is,” Gabbro repeated with an incredulous huff. “How would that work? It sounds like it’d be a time crunch already.”

“Not really,” Chalk sat down on the hard rocky earth, cross-legged and Gabbro sat up in their hammock to look at them better. “I can’t get the warp core until the Ash Twin has drained off enough sand for me to step on the warp pad. If I come straight here after I wake up, then I can take you with me, and I won’t be losing any time. It takes a couple orbits before the Ember Twin has sucked up enough of the sand for me to even get to the Ash Twin Core.”

“I’m not sure, Chalk,” Gabbro said slowly. “You’ve already been flying around and seeing all of these things. Things no other Hearthian has seen. Not even Feldspar, wherever they are—”

“Oh, they’re alive. They’re in the Dark Bramble, camped out in an Angler Fish.”

Chalk couldn’t see it because of their helmet, but they was sure that Gabbro just blinked at them for a moment. Then, they pointed one finger at them and said, “That’s my point. This is normal for you. Well not normal. None of this is normal, but you’re more adjusted to this. I’ve just been here in my hammock. I haven’t seen what the Nomai can do like you have. I haven’t travelled to the quantum moon, or the depths of the Dark Bramble. I’ve never even  _ seen _ a real live angler fish. My experience of all this is very different from yours.”

“I don’t want to leave you here to die,” Chalk said firmly. “And we’ll die anyway. There’s no more loops. It feels wrong to leave you sitting here to just get roasted by the sun when you have a chance to… I don’t even know what we have a chance to do. Reach the Eye of the Universe. Enter it as conscious observers. Change what is, what will be.”

Gabbro was quiet for a moment, kicking their legs over the edge of their hammock. “I’ve died so many times now. I’m not sure I can really understand what that means. For it to be permanent. To change the universe.”

“It’s up to you,” Chalk said. “I’ll come by at the start of the next loop, and you can either get in my ship, or stay on the hammock. That’s your choice, but I’d like it if you’d come with me.”

“Give me some time to think about it,” Gabbro said.

“I think you’ve got about seven minutes,” Chalk joked, and Gabbro snorted.

Chalk sat and stared at a twister as it passed, near enough to almost fling the island into space, but not quite. After a moment of silence, Gabbro started playing their flute again until the sun went supernova, perhaps for the last time.

Chalk awoke as usual and immediately surged to their feet. They ran for the lift, inserted the code, and launched towards Giant’s Deep. They landed on the gravity pad near Gabbro’s camp, suited up and dropped down to find Gabbro already jogging towards their ship.

“If I die today, I want it to be doing something meaningful,” they said. “Plus, I’d just be lying here all day knowing my actual, real death was imminent. I’d rather spend that time with my time pal, sailing towards the unknown.”

Chalk grinned, and boarded their ship again with Gabbro. Once the hatch was closed, they both took off their helmets, and it was the first time that they had seen eachother’s faces. Chalk’s own face was asymmetrical. The darker spots that marked most Hearthians were mostly distributed on the left side of Chalk’s face, neck, and ears, while the right side was largely smooth. Gabbro’s face was a little longer, with drooping, kind eyes that suited them. Chalk settled into the pilot’s seat and launched them off of Giant’s Deep, towards the Hourglass Twins.

As they approached, Ash Twin was already pouring into Ember Twin’s gash of an equator, just enough to find the tops of the Hourglass Twin’s towers. Chalk landed their ship a bit North of the sand pillar’s path and chuckled. When they’d first begun flying, they were a poor lander, almost always damaging their landing gear or landing camera, but after uncountable loops, they’d mastered it.

“Come on,” Chalk popped their helmet back on and Gabbro mirrored the action. “This part’s a little tricky. We’ve got to time it just right.”

They both dropped out of the ship and boosted over to the Hourglass Twin Towers, then settled inside of the Ash Twin tower as the sand slowly drained from inside of it.

“What’s the plan exactly?” Gabbro asked. “You said there’s a warp pad?”

“We have to wait until the sand pillar is directly over us, then we run onto the pad,” Chalk gestured. “There’s a little alcove here,” they pointed at the wall, “where we wait until the sand is in the right position.”

“Won’t the sand just suck us up into the Ember Twin?” Gabbro shook their head. 

“Trust me on this. It works,” Chalk began to see the doorway appear and crouched low. Once the sand dropped low enough, they huddled under the small ceiling with Gabbro and gripped their hand. The roaring of the sand pillar was approaching them.

It rotated above them, straight through the center of the room through the broken ceiling of the tower. Chalk rushed forward, dragging Gabbro with them, and there was a flash of a black hole, then they were in the Ash Twin Core. Gabbro turned in a small circle, admiring the glowing masks that faced them.

“That’s us,” Chalk said, gesturing to two of the active masks. “That’s the cannon,” they pointed to the third.

Gabbro stared at the spinning wall, then nodded, “This is… amazing. What do we do now?”

Chalk led Gabbro around the core, opened the access to the warp core, and deactivated the artificial gravity. The two Hearthians floated towards the core and both grasped it, then floated back to the Ash Twin warp pad. Suddenly, they were back in the tower, grasping the warp core.

“No more loops,” Gabbro said, staring at the small black and white holes in the warp core’s design. “Let’s go. Where’s the Vessel again?”

“Dark Bramble,” Chalk said, and they took Gabbro’s hand, launching out of the top of the Ash Twin tower. They made their way back to the ship and blasted off again.

“See, I thought it was in Dark Bramble,” Gabbro laughed nervously, “But I was hoping it had miraculously moved. And it would be hiding away somewhere safe and easy to access. Like Timber Hearth. Or the Attlerock.”

They soared towards the Dark Bramble and Chalk said, “The angler fish are surprisingly easy to get past if you just coast. But don’t make any noise when we see them-”

“See them?” Gabbro scoffed. “I was hoping we would not see them. At all.”

“We will see them,” Chalk grinned. “It’ll be alright.”

“Kinda wish I was on my hammock right now,” Gabbro sighed.

Chalk drew out their signal scope as they approached the Dark Bramble and they sailed into the pale, foggy expanse of the core. They adjusted the ship carefully to follow the distress beacon. The first two seeds didn’t lead them towards any angler fish, but once they reached the Nomai Grave and Chalk fired their scout through the seed, they knew the threat of angler fish was real. They followed the scout signal through the next seed and there were the three angler fish guarding the entrance.

Gabbro grabbed Chalk’s forearm tightly. At some point, they’d taken their helmet off, and their eyes were wide, other hand gripping the warp core. Chalk could hear their breathing, harsh and quick as they moved past the angler fish, nearly touching them. They glided past, occasionally checking the landing camera to ensure they were moving past, then carefully nudged the controls forwards, following the scout signal towards the final seed.

They sailed through carefully into the next seed and to the vessel. Chalk aligned their trajectory and stopped the ship. They put their helmet back on and looked to Gabbro, “Ready to go?”

“I’m about as ready as I’ll ever be,” Gabbro nodded, lowering their helmet back onto their head. “Let’s get to the Eye of the Universe.”

Chalk nodded and they opened the hatch. They and Gabbro jumped out of the ship and sailed inside the Vessel, down the hallway, to the deck that Chalk had already explored. Gabbro inserted the warp core into the ship, and the power and gravity reactivated. Chalk moved the Nomai tech orb to input the coordinates, then raised the warp orb. The Vessel thrummed and they were pulled abruptly to the swirling black and purple clouds. Gabbro stared at it in awe, then shook their head, “This is creepin’ me out a bit, time pal.”

“Yeah,” Chalk agreed. “Let’s get moving.”

They moved the Nomai marble to warp pad, and a small black warp hole appeared. Gabbro warped through first, then Chalk. 

Chalk narrowed their eyes as they landed, looking around, “Wait. This is just the quantum moon again.”

“Did we do something wrong?” Gabbro asked.

“I don’t think so,” Chalk said, and they led Gabbro towards the south pole, towards the collection of clouds that funneled upwards. “I tried to jump in those last time I was here, and I just tumbled back onto the moon, but orbiting Timber Hearth.”

“You want to  _ jump  _ into that?” Gabbro asked, incredulous again.

“I think that’s how we get to the Eye,” Chalk shrugged. They fired their scout into it, and lost connection with it immediately. They tried to recall the scout, but the signal was fully lost. There was no scout to recall.

Gabbro grabbed Chalk’s hand again. “If you jump, I’ll jump with you.”

Chalk nodded, and the two of them leapt, rocketing themselves up off of the moon until the gravity shifted and they were plummeting through the wormhole full speed, still gripping eachother’s hands tightly. 

They passed through something that looked like thick, dripping smoke. Pillars of descending purple matter around them as they dropped down, through the base—

They landed together in the museum on Timber Hearth, in front of the statue that held Chalk’s memories. They narrowed their eyes and stepped forward to read the plaque. 

_ The Nomai never got to see it for themselves, but thanks to their efforts and technology, two Hearthians were able to reach the Eye of the universe. _

“It’s different,” Chalk said to Gabbro. Gabbro shrugged dramatically. They wandered into the rest of the museum and attempted to look out the windows. The rest of Timber Hearth did not exist. There was an all-consuming blackness that surrounded the building. They approached the large blue planet in the planetary lineup diorama and examined it.

_ At the end of its lifespan, our sun collapsed under its own gravity and then exploded in a violent supernova.  _

Gabbro climbed the ramp to the second story and Chalk followed. They both viewed the planetary map and were whisked away to a view of the dying universe, stars collapsing, sparking out like dying flames. Then they were falling—

Gabbro was gone. Chalk was alone in a forest surrounded by sputtering lights, sputtering  _ stars _ , the heat death of the galaxy.

“Gabbro!” Chalk shouted out, but it felt almost like their voice died as soon as they spoke, whisked away like the stars. Light was fading with them, and they tried to rush towards the remaining stars to avoid being swallowed by the black.

It was unavoidable.

But then there was a fire amongst the trees of what appeared to be Timber Hearth, or maybe the quantum moon version of Timber Hearth. And by that fire was Gabbro.

Chalk sprinted to the fire and collided with Gabbro, hugging them tightly.

“Whoa-” Gabbro wheezed, then nodded, rubbing Chalk’s back. “It’s alright, time pal. I’m still here.”

“You disappeared,” Chalk expelled.

“ _ You _ disappeared,” Gabbro laughed. “I was back in the ocean for a second. On Giant’s Deep. And the stars were burning out. But now I’m back here.”

Faintly, Chalk could still hear it. The gush of wind from the twisters, and when they looked up, the sky was the same swirling, gaseous green of the oceanic planet. But there was a fire, and a small pack of marshmallows beside it. Chalk took one, stabbed it on a nearby stick, and began to carefully roast it over the flame until it browned nicely. They ate the mallow, then tried to back up to find they were stuck.

“Where did that come from?” Gabbro chuckled, pointing at Chalk, and they realized that they were sitting down. They stood up from a rocking chair. Esker’s rocking chair.

“This is very weird,” Chalk muttered and turned to Gabbro.

“Yeah,” Gabbro nodded. “I’m not sure what I expected, but this wasn’t it. Hey! Esker!” Gabbro pointed to the chair, and there was Esker, sitting exactly as they sat on the Attlerock, but no whistling.

“Esker,” Chalk approached the Hearthian. “What-”

“Do you hear music?” Esker asked, rocking slowly. They seemed off, not like the fully realized person Esker was, but a shell. An image of them.

“Uh, no,” Chalk said, but turned to find Gabbro with their own signalscope out.

“I do,” they pointed, “This way.” Chalk followed them and they found Riebeck’s banjo, then Chert’s drums, then Feldspar’s harmonics, then Gabbro’s flute, then Solanum’s staff.

They all gathered around the fire with slightly off versions of their friends and they played their song. Chalk felt a little left out, unable to play an instrument, and watched as the music build a swirling, flashing white cloud. Music built the world.

Gabbro stopped playing, but the others continued on, acting as they were told to.

They stared into the white, and Gabbro quietly moved next to Chalk, settling beside them in the grass. They both sat, surrounded by the swelling music, staring into the new  _ something _ they’d built. “That do you think that is?” Chalk asked softly, already having an answer in mind.

“A new universe,” Gabbro replied, gesturing to the flashing symbols on the surface of the white orb. “New beginning. After all of us.”

“We knew there was no fixing it,” Chalk said a little sourly. And it was too late to go back, to try anything else. The warp core was gone, the Ash Twin Project was over. There were no more loops. Their universe was already gone, and they were the last Hearthians alive.

“You were right though,” Gabbro said. “This is better than dying on Giant’s Deep in a supernova.”

“Better than the endless loops?” Chalk asked.

“We’re out of time,” Gabbro sighed and took Chalk’s hand again. “Now, we just prolong the inevitable.”

Chalk nodded and stood. Gabbro stood beside them. They gripped eachother’s hands tightly as they stared at the swirling new system above the fire. “And so we jump?”

“And so we jump,” Gabbro confirmed.

Chalk looked into their friend’s four eyes and they shared a single nod before leaping into the mist.

Immediately, they were floating in the vast expanse of space as white light seared their vision before them. They were back in their suit, their helmet cracked, as a new universe bloomed before them.

They looked to their left, and there was Gabbro, still holding onto them, staring into the same dying sun, the same explosion they’d built. Neither of them spoke. They gripped each other’s hands tightly, then stared towards the white light of the sun’s explosion, the big bang, the rebirth.

White rushed towards them, a gust of heat—


End file.
